Media Release

KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter today has questioned the impact on safety of overseas airline maintenance, after voting against the Federal Government’s laws removing foreign ownership restrictions from Qantas.

Mr Katter said that half of all airline fatalities come from maintenance and inspection failure and the only world airline without a fatality is Qantas.

“The 5,000 Qantas engineering workers created this safety, they are now to be sacked, their jobs and $1b a year going overseas.

“Overseas access, ‘by treaty’, is confined to an “Australian Airline”. Surely the Minister agrees this must be one whose maintenance is based in Australia, not one whose market advantage comes from a cut-rate, cheap-jack overseas based work force?,” Mr Katter asked the Federal Industry Minister.

As Mr Katter asked the Question, he also held up an image of the inside of a Boeing 747 wheel well.

“We are advised by aircraft engineers that the Boeing manuals used to reinstall components such as those in this Boeing 747 wheel well are only available in English.

“We are informed that an Australian airline had a near fatal incident, when out of Hong Kong a 747 was released with all four engines bolted incorrectly.

“If maintenance is offshored, I am certain there will be a serious dislocation between our maintenance workforce in Australia and overseas.

“Even if you lack any scintilla of patriotism, as do our major party politicians, every Australian would prefer their maintenance to be done by someone on $75,000 per year instead of someone on $30,000 per year.

“We are not talking about IKEA bolt together furniture, you need more than a screwdriver to fix a jumbo jet,” Mr Katter said.

Today Mr Katter voted against the Federal Government’s laws, which essentially allowed for the structural separation of Qantas’s domestic and international arms, repealing the 49 per cent cap on foreign investment in Qantas and removing the barrier to foreign airlines buying more than 35 per cent of the company.

PHOTOs: Mr Katter with the image he held up in Question Time today, depicting the inside of a 747 wheel well.